Virtual Reality Could Explain the Fermi Paradox


	Virtual Reality Could Explain the Fermi Paradox

wildcat

5-11-2008 6:22 AM

381 views

tags:

vr, mind upload, fermi paradox

wildcat says:

"What I’m thinking of could probably be called ‘mind uploading’."

1 Comment |

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5-11-2008 11:17 AM

vk2yoc

Just because we (though not me) may find the prospect of virtual existence attractive, that doesn't mean a truly intelligent life form would.

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/ef820d29-a635-47e3-bd6b-a16502dacd43/3FF8E066-7E5D-482A-9B09-36DA20555186/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://michaelgr.com/2008/05/09/virtual-reality-could-explain-the-fermi-paradox/" href="http://michaelgr.com/2008/05/09/virtual-reality-could-explain-the-fermi-paradox/" style="font-size: 11px;">michaelgr.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://michaelgr.com/2008/05/09/virtual-reality-could-explain-the-fermi-paradox/"><P>A recent <A href="http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/20569/page1/" linkindex="2" set="yes">article in Technology Review</A> by Nick Bostrom generated a lot of discussion about the Fermi paradox, which states:</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://michaelgr.com/2008/05/09/virtual-reality-could-explain-the-fermi-paradox/"><P>I’ll add my 2 cents to this discussion by saying that there’s a possibility that any civilization that becomes advanced enough discovers that physical reality can’t hold a candle to virtual reality and makes the transition (alien transubstantiation, to coin a phrase). This could explain why they haven’t colonized the galaxy, or why we aren’t bathed in their radio communications.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://michaelgr.com/2008/05/09/virtual-reality-could-explain-the-fermi-paradox/"><P>Virtual worlds can be, in theory, both much more pleasant to inhabit, with unlimited freedom and none of the downsides of an existence based on crude physical processes, and also much more energy-efficient. Even without cold computing, it would take a lot less energy for an advanced civilization to do all that it wants to do within a simulation than by moving atoms around.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://michaelgr.com/2008/05/09/virtual-reality-could-explain-the-fermi-paradox/">As I mentioned before, they could also <A href="http://michaelgr.com/2008/04/13/on-the-nature-of-time-implications-for-advanced-intelligence-and-seti/" linkindex="3">think much faster</A>, subjectively pushing back the heat death of the universe</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/3FF8E066-7E5D-482A-9B09-36DA20555186/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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